Saturday, September 17, 2011

NASCAR TV Ready For NFL Showdown

Sunday will be the first time since the new NASCAR TV contract began in 2007 that a coordinated effort between multiple media partners has the sport ready to compete with the NFL.

Let's review some of the changes involved in putting NASCAR in this position:

NASCAR.com finally got the go ahead to offer a full-scale free RaceBuddy application for the Chase races. Fans can now hit the Internet for eight additional video sources, team scanners from the in-car cameras and real time scoring. Turner Sports Interactive is providing this service.

ESPN will be able to provide 9 of the 10 Chase races on the Watch ESPN app. This means existing customers will be able to view the races and the NASCAR Now program on laptops, iPads and smart phones. Click here for a complete list of all cable providers offering the service.

NASCAR Nonstop is the term ESPN coined for the new side-by-side commercial format that the network will be using during the Chase. In the second half of all the Chase races, ESPN will switch to the view you see above during commercial breaks. The race and scoring will continue while the commercial rolls. ESPN will immediately return to the race if there is an incident on the track.

SPEED's popular one-hour Victory Lane show will now start as soon as ESPN or ABC signs-off after a Chase race. The program will have a flexible starting time and will try to get the existing TV audience to switch over to SPEED when the live race telecast is done. John Roberts, Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace talk with the winning driver, crew chief and owner. Bob Dillner interviews other drivers and personalities in this extended post-race format.

ESPN will use the resources at the track and back in the Bristol, CT studios to air a one hour NASCAR Now wrap-up show after each Chase race. The program from Chicagoland this weekend airs at 11:30PM ET on ESPN2. This lets the network use those who participated in race telecasts for observations. The show will originate from the ESPN studios with various hosts.

This season NASCAR TV veteran Allen Bestwick will call all ten Chase races. ESPN tried Dr. Jerry Punch and Marty Reid in this position, but Bestwick is a true NASCAR media personality with a base of knowledge about the sport that is second to none. His work ethic is well-known and it will be the first time a strong on-air personality will lead the TV telecasts.

The Sprint Cup Mobile app continues to provide both information and live video to Sprint users. The app contains multiple links to sources that provide updated information on the series and the Chase. Multiple channels of live audio are also provided during the races, including the NASCAR officials channel.

Click here for the official Sprint Cup Series Facebook page. It will probably top 2 million subscribers who "liked" it by Sunday. This page has come a long way and now pumps out tons of great links, pictures and videos. It is a must to follow for the Chase with items that will not be seen on other websites.

Twitter is something that does not really make sense until you use it. It's free, easy to operate and works on a smart phone, iPad or almost any kind of online device. As a hardcore race fan, it is simply the best tool for updated NASCAR information ever invented. It allows any user to create a customized stream of information from series, teams, drivers, racetracks, sponsors or media organizations. Fans can interact directly with Sprint Cup Series drivers on Twitter and see exclusive content. Regardless of what your skeptical friend might say, it's not about who got a haircut and where someone ate lunch.

Click here to view the official NASCAR Twitter page. Click here for the The Daly Planet page. Click here for the Chicagoland Speedway page. This is a little taste of what is on Twitter. I would strongly suggest joining and trying it out.

There is no doubt that this first Sunday of NASCAR going head-to-head with the 1PM and 4:30PM NFL games is going to leave a mark. But now, instead of having only one TV source for live information, fans are going to be surrounded by more types of online and social media applications loaded with content.

It's great to finally see cooler heads prevail and priorities get sorted out for NASCAR's version of the playoffs. It's going to be quite different this season when fans can have the local NFL game on one TV screen but enjoy the option of NASCAR on a variety of devices from iPads to smart phones.

How are you going to configure your Chase media center? Have these additional options made it easier for you to keep NASCAR active in NFL season? Happy to have your opinion on this subject, it's a brand new playing field this time around.

To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.

15 comments:

Mike (Detroit)
said...

Obviously, this blog has helped a lot to get these much needed changes in NA$CAR TV coverage. (Thanks for stepping up JD) I Just hope it's not a "to little to late" kind of thing. There's still the Fox part of the TV coverage that is still out to lunch, but this has to give everyone a glimmer of hope for the future. Good job to everyone on the DP blog, for making your voices heard. I guess you could say, "The Planet" has spoken!

"Regardless of what your skeptical friend might say, it's not about who got a haircut and where someone ate lunch." Have you ever read Montoya's tweets? Haha. Just joking with you JD. I know you love your Twitter.

It's not what my skeptical friend might say; it's what I've been saying. I looked at JD's three Twitter examples.

NASCAR - TV times readily available lots of other places (including here), and announcements of interviews with no explanation of where they are or how to see / hear / read them.

JD - sorry, but I don't understand half your posts. I get that you're responding to others. What I don't get is how to view their half of the 'conversation', or why those not involved would be interested. It looks like just posting your e-mail for public viewing.

Chigacoland track - I could see a point to this during weather delays, etc, but like JD's posts I don't understand most of it.

There may be value here, but after several attempts over the last two years I still don't know how to interpret it. All the web resources I've been able to find discuss how to maximize one's audience on Twitter; there's nothing to aid the non-posting viewer trying to dig for useful content. Anybody got a good tutorial?

Well fans in Canada are still screwed. Practice is at 2pm ET on ESPN2 and what do we get? The main TSN channel is showing NZL vs JPN in rugby and TSN2 is airing a movie. That's right, the SPORTS network is airing a movie instead of sports. Home of NASCAR in Canada my foot. Called the Audience Relations number and got to leave a voice mail. If any of my other fellow Canuckistanis want to call and vent the number is 416-384-7660

@Palmetto to answer your question about Twitter, use the search feature and type in "thedalyplanet" and every tweet that has @TheDalyPlanet in it will appear. Hope that helps

I used to enjoy TrackPass RaceView but it's now unreliable and unwatchable more often than not. I usually just use the scanner so it'll be nice to have RaceBuddy.

The excitement of going straight to Victory Lane after the race fizzled for me already last week. The key word is ESPN -- they go to VL after ESPN is done. Well I'm in Iowa and last week there was this stupid local college rivalry football game. ABC cut to the local news without warning before interviewing the race winner. The game was over hours earlier but they wanted to show it on the news. I checked SPEED and all the ESPN channels we get, but there was no post-race coverage. SPEED had a ticker saying VL would be on after the race, but that didn't happen for me. I was so upset I didn't watch ANYTHING, even when VL did come on later in the night.

Showdown, Really? The NFL and college football are like the New York Yankees and NASCAR is like the local kids T-Ball team. Nothing can compete with football,it's KING. Not baseball, tennis, NASCAR.There's no showdown with any football game anywhere, anytime. NASCAR and it fans just need to be realistic and put things in perspective, they have a lot of loyal fans but will never be in the same league as football.

Showdown, Really? The NFL and college football are like the New York Yankees and NASCAR is like the local kids T-Ball team. Nothing can compete with football,it's KING. Not baseball, tennis, NASCAR.There's no showdown with any football game anywhere, anytime. NASCAR and it fans just need to be realistic and put things in perspective, they have a lot of loyal fans but will never be in the same league as football.

JD,Your WatchESPN list not correct. The NASCAR content is EXTREMELY limited in its availablity. You put a link for the ESPN3 network content, which is not the same thing as what you need for the NASCAR content.

Here is the correct link.http://espn.go.com/watchespn/affList?device=videosub

If you don't have Time Warner Cable, Brighthouse Networks, or Verizon Fios, you do not have access to NASCAR content from ESPN.

From the FAQ, "How can I get access to all ESPN networks available on WatchESPN?Online registration through your TV service provider is required in order to access content on all networks. Non-participating TV provider customers have access to ESPN3 programming online only at WatchESPN.com, as long as they subscribe to a participating high speed internet service provider. Click here for a list of participating video providers. Click here for a list of high speed internet providers."